Pamilacan Sanctuary

Pamilacan Sanctuary: a dive route beside a protected area

Sanctuary is a named dive site around Pamilacan Island, Bohol. Alona Bohol Divers Club places its route near Spanish Tower and describes shallow corals leading to a steep slope. Sierra Madre Divers also lists Sanctuary, emphasizing coral gardens and smaller reef life. The name needs care: an advertised Sanctuary dive does not establish permission to enter every part of the protected area.

Check the buoyed boundary

Alona Bohol Divers Club explicitly distinguishes its route from a buoyed area where it says scuba diving is not allowed. Its description starts outside those buoys and avoids continuing into the protected area. This is an operator's account of its itinerary, not a current boundary survey or independent confirmation of the applicable rules. Before entering, ask the operator to explain the permitted route and confirm current arrangements with the responsible local authority.

Different published dive profiles

Alona Bohol Divers Club publishes a 3–30 m profile for its Sanctuary route. Sierra Madre Divers describes a shallower 5–20 m coral-garden experience. Those accounts may cover different portions of the reef; neither establishes a measured whole-site average. Agree the planned depth and turnaround points before booking, especially if a group includes divers with different experience levels.

Reef life and trip planning

The operator accounts describe coral formations and macro subjects such as nudibranchs and pipefish. These reports are not a sighting guarantee. Ask which route is suitable for your recent experience, whether the crossing and dive depend on weather, and what the alternative itinerary would be. Do not infer that the entire site is always calm from a description of one shallow route.

Partial information

The exact protected boundary, current access arrangements, fees and reliable condition ranges are not independently established here. Use the map as a general site reference rather than a boundary or entry instruction. Sanctuary, Spanish Tower and Dakit Dakit remain separate records; this review does not merge their identities or change their coordinates.

Subjects in the named Sanctuary account

Alona's Sanctuary list is more specific than a general promise of macro life: it names robust pipefish, mandarinfish and cuttlefish, together with garden eels, moray eels, sweetlips, butterflyfish, bannerfish and trumpetfish. Those reports cover both smaller subjects and reef fish; they do not establish a spawning schedule, a species census or permission to follow an animal across the buoyed boundary.

Getting to the island

Alona describes Pamilacan as about forty minutes by boat from its Alona Beach dive centre. Treat that as the operator's island-transfer estimate, separate from time underwater or the precise Sanctuary drop-off. Confirm the departure point and crossing arrangements with the operator running your trip.